The government’s “meagre ambition” to tackle a backlog of crown court criminal trials in England and Wales is “unlikely to address unacceptable delays” for victims, witnesses, and defendants, the parliamentary spending watchdog has concluded.
A report by the House of Commons public accounts committee, published on Wednesday, said that government plans to reduce the crown court backlog by less than 8,000 to 53,000 by March 2025 were not radical enough — particularly for victims of rape and sexual assaults who often wait years for justice.
The report noted that the backlog had almost doubled from an all-time low of 33,290 cases in March 2019 to 59,928 in September 2021, partly because jury trials were suspended at the start of the pandemic in 2020. Since March 2020, the number of cases waiting longer than a year for trial has increased by more than 340 per cent, according to the report.
In December 2021, the latest Ministry of Justice figures, the backlog stood at 58,350 and some trials were being pushed back to 2023 or 2024.
The MoJ has already announced measures to tackle the backlog and alleviate pressures on the crown courts — including giving magistrates powers to impose maximum prison sentences of a year rather than six months. The government also plans to keep open 30 courtrooms in 12 temporary “Nightingale” courts in town halls and hotels until March 2023.
However, the parliamentary report criticised the “slow pace of recovery” in the government’s programme and said the delays for victims of rape and serious sexual offences “compound and extend their suffering and lead to too many cases collapsing”.
Meg Hillier, the committee chair, said: “We acknowledge the difficulties created by the pandemic but the figures show that these problems were evident before Covid hit. The MoJ says it will take two years to cut this backlog by less than a sixth.
“It’s just not good enough. The number of people waiting more than a year to have a serious criminal case heard has more than trebled since March 2020 from already unacceptably high levels,” she added.
The report said the number of rape and sexual assault cases waiting longer than a year to be heard had increased by more than 400 per cent since the onset of the pandemic — increasing the risk that victims would withdraw from the process.
The report said MPs believed there were “significant, systemic challenges” to clearing the backlog, including too few trained judges, legal professionals and staff to support criminal courts.
They were also “unconvinced” that the prison system would cope with the likely rise in prisoners given the government’s plan to increase the number of police officers by 20,000 by 2023.
Last month HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services and HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate concluded that specialist “rape courts” should be established to cut the nearly two-year wait between most rape complaints and the start of any trial.
The MoJ said the backlog had fallen “significantly” in recent months and the authorities were “on track to get through a fifth more cases next year than in the year running up to the pandemic”.
It said it intended to invest £500mn over the next three years to speed up justice, including lifting limits on court sitting times and greater powers for magistrates.
MPs criticise ‘meagre’ measures to tackle crown court backlog
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